Actor Michael Caine made more than $1 million before he...

Actor Michael Caine made more than $1 million before he learned to drive. He also bought a Rolls-Royce before he learned to drive. Curious occasion, that. He and a friend went shopping for his dream car. An uppity salesman at the first dealership brushed them off as a waste of his time. The next dealer sold Caine a fabulously expensive convertible. He promptly got in same, and his friend drove him slowly by the first dealer's place, where they offered the uppity salesman a V for victory finger sign or something like that.

Mayonnaise on your burger and ketchup on your fries -- distinctly American, what? No, sir, we're a nation of imports. Ketchup originated in China, mayonnaise on Minorca, french fries in Belgium, and no one country can claim credit for ground meat.

Q.What's the best-selling nut?

A. The almond, research reveals. Peanut doesn't count, evidently. Not a real nut.

Q. What proportion of the cigarette smokers who sign up for those quit- smoking programs actually do quit?

A. One in four, research reveals.

Q. One time every member of the U.S. Congress wore a white rose. Why?

A. On Jan. 30, 1946. That was the anniversary of Franklin D. Roosevelt's birthday. The name Roosevelt means ''field of roses,'' please note.

The meat of the manatee -- the sea beast that inspired the mermaid legends -- tastes like veal, I'm told.

Expectant mothers on the island of Fernando de Noronha off Brazil long paid a standard fee for maternity care -- one chicken.

Above a door of the sacred stable in Nikko, Japan, are carved nine words. They were copied by Chinese three centuries ago and then spread around the whole world. They translate: ''Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil.''

Most word mechanics like citadel but not kremlin. Yet they mean exactly the same.